Lately, various local businesses are evaluating their marketing plan and budget to gear up for 2012. Perhaps your company realizes the importance of online marketing, but you are not sure how to budget accordingly. You want to increase your Internet fans and followers, but you have not determined which staff member will handle your Facebook account, Twitter account, and so forth. After all, you have a business to run, right?

Whereas smaller firms will perform social media work in-house due to budget constraints, what about the other firms that outsource? Who is the number one source for social media marketing? The paid search agency is the number one option for social media advertising (eMarketer). Take a look below. These findings came from Covario's survey in July 2011.

Is it truly necessary to invest in both social media marketing and paid search advertising? You bet. Why? While you are weighing the options, your competitors are already starting to push their complete online marketing plan into motion.

According to Covario in 2010, nearly 40% of companies planned to include both social media marketing and paid search advertising in their online marketing budget. In addition, 46% said that social media advertising was a top priority for 2011. It is safe to assume that these percentages can only increase for 2012.

So how do companies normally budget for social media marketing? Although 41.7% of companies from Covario's survey said they use funds from their paid search budget, 39.5% said they have an individual budget for social media marketing:

As you can see, the integration of search and social marketing is becoming inevitable. And remember, ReachLocal offers this seamless integration in our product called ReachCast. Instead of allocating your money for a full-time online marketing professional, we provide a team that handles it for you at a lower cost. With ReachCast, we center on your

1) Online reputation

2) Social media marketing

3) Organic search discovery results

Check out the ReachCast video:

How will you be allocating your online marketing budget for 2012? Will you be integrating social media marketing and paid search advertising together or creating an independent budget for each? Share your feedback in a comment!

About Alan Moore: Alan is an Internet Marketing Consultant with ReachLocal Baltimore. His mission is to help you increase your revenues and decrease unproductive advertising expenses through proven, online marketing strategies. He manages over $1,000,000 in yearly marketing budgets and has worked with local businesses, agencies and the US government. Give him a call at (877)655-3438 to schedule a free consultation.